‘Morning people’ more likely to sin at night, and vice-versa

Are you an early riser? Well, you might not want to let that information out, since we know you’ll be up to no good later. (Getty Images)

New research shows that morning people have a tendency to behave badly at night, while night owls tend to be dishonest in the morning.

University of Washington-led research found a link between chronotype (morning person or evening person) and ethics in their study, “The Morality of Larks and Owls.”

The study — conducted by Christopher Barnes of the UW, Sunita Sah of Georgetown University and Brian Gunia of Johns Hopkins University — tested almost 200 subjects with problem-solving tests and games with a monetary reward.

The subjects’ scores didn’t matter. The study examined how honest they were when self-reporting their results.

The first test only focused on the morning behavior. The subjects were given simple matrix tasks and told they would be paid more for each matrix they solved. The results were consistent with the prediction that the night owls were more likely to cheat.

“Managers should try to learn the chronotype (lark, owl, or in between) of their subordinates and make sure to respect it when deciding how to structure their work. Managers who ask a lark to make ethics-testing decisions at night, or an owl to make such decisions in the morning, run the risk of encouraging rather than discouraging unethical behavior.

Similarly, people who control their own work schedules should structure their work with their chronotype in mind. Many of us are tempted to squeeze in that extra hour of work. If we’re a morning person squeezing it in at night, though, we create a situation in which resisting temptation may be harder than ever. Owls who schedule extra hours for themselves early in the morning face the same issue.”